Christmas Gala Concert

The Gala Concert at the Maltings in Farnham is a memorable occasion each Christmas that brings together the girls’ choir, the boys’ choir and the main youth choir. When the three join forces, for the first few moments the youngest singers at the front are often visibly startled by the wall of sound behind them! The stage is always brilliantly lit, and thanks to the stage decorations the effect is very festive – although unknown to the audience, the heat from the lights presents a challenge for the singers and there tends to be a casualty or two (expertly gathered up and spirited away by volunteer first-aiders). Things like this demand professionalism from the choirs and they always cope extremely well. Jo Tomlinson, Jo McNally and Patrick Barrett led the singers through a varied programme that showed their range, supported throughout by accompanist Matthew Rickard.

Two soloists opened the concert from the auditorium, getting proceedings off to a traditional, spell-binding start with the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City. When the audience rose to join in with the rest of the carol, the gentleman sitting next to me had to be coaxed to his feet – ‘do I seriously have to sing?!’ – but as the concert went on he found his confidence and relaxed into his new performing role. By the time Jingle Bells came around at the close and everyone was asked to shake their keys in time to the music, he was reluctant to sit down again. His party had come to the concert out of curiosity to see what Farnham Youth Choir was like. His verdict? ‘I think they must do a serious amount of work to achieve all this’, he said. 

Review by Helen Cole

Christmas Words and Music

On a cold winters evening – snow in the air outside – what better than the fabulous sound of the Farnham Youth Choir to warm the spirit.

Inside Farnham’s United Reform Church the candles were glowing and the newly decorated Christmas trees were sparkling gold and russet red. A beautiful setting for the first of the season’s Farnham Youth Choir’s Christmas concerts.

Throughout the concert, meaningful readings were interspersed with wonderful singing. We enjoyed beautiful moments of purity such as the first verse solo of Once in Royal David’s City as well as the more dramatic pieces including Joubert’s Torches and Britten’s This Little Babe. In between we were treated to favourites including the upbeat melody of Rutter’s Star Carol and the accurate, chiming tones of the Carol of the Bells. 

The Holly and the Ivy showcased the many wonderful individual voices in the FYC choir and the audience carols were topped off by stunning descants – how wonderful to have so many voices soaring up high above those of us watching and singing along.

Jo Tomlinson, FYC’s Musical Director, brought the readings to an end with Dickens’s festive Fezziwig and the lilting King Jesus hath a Garden with its “cymbal, trump and timbal and the tender soothing flute” left us feeling well and truly warmed up for Christmas tide. The evening was nicely rounded off with mulled wine and mince pies for everyone.

Review by Sara Acworth

Junior Choirs Christmas Celebration

Each year the junior choirs in the FYC family give a concert that launches the Christmas season in a uniquely joyful way. Parents and grandparents in the audience sit on their hands to start with but in the end a discreet wave or thumbs-up to their choir-member just can’t be suppressed. Then everything gets underway and there’s so much to be proud of.

Serious music-making came with a generous measure of fun in this year’s Christmas Celebration at the United Reformed Church in Farnham. Scattered through the programme were seasonal readings that were beautifully and confidently delivered by young choir-members. The Girls’ Choir under Jo McNally gave us lots of colours in four contrasting pieces, from the traditional (In the Bleak Midwinter) through to the spiritual (Tiny Little Baby born in Bethlehem) with syncopations, rhythmic clapping and singing in rounds along the way – and a burst of dancing at the end. The Boys’ Choir showed that they could do ‘cheeky’ like no-one else, whether punching the air (‘pow!’) in Super Santa! or calling the reindeer home with a Sami drum (Lapland Joik), guided by their director Patrick Barrett. The Training Choir eased us from autumn into winter with songs that included movement and impressive finger-clicking, director Sarah Burston donning a Christmas jumper along the way. By the time the choirs came together to end with Hava Nashira the audience knew that these young singers had worked hard all year yet still had energy to spare, even if sometimes opening your mouth wide to sing can bring on a yawn that just won’t be stifled. There was nothing sleepy about the heartfelt cheers of thanks for accompanist and organist Matthew Rickard.  

The next few weeks place many demands on singers but these young musicians showed everyone that they are in fantastic shape as they head towards Christmas, and beyond.  

Review by Helen Cole

Farnham Lions celebrates its 50th anniversary in song

There was not a spare seat to be had in St Andrew’s Church, as Farnham Lions hosted Farnham Youth Choir in a concert of sacred and secular music spanning 900 years as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations.

The evening started in magical fashion, with the church in darkness as the choir entered from the rear of the church with a suitably atmospheric performance of O Vitus Sapientiae by the 12th century composer, mystic and philosopher Hildegard of Bingen.

Lions President Andrew Lodge then welcomed everyone, thanking all for their support in this special year for the Farnham club (which coincidentally marks the centenary of Lions Club International). Among the many highlights in 2017 he especially pointed to the ‘Summer Spectacular’, 18 months in the planning, which had raised over £40,000 for four local youth-based charities.

It was then on with the music, as FYC journeyed through the centuries with sacred pieces by Croce, Pergolesi and Mendelssohn. Motets by Maurice Duruflé and Francis Poulenc - complete with typically French crunchy harmonies - represented the 20th century and the first half finished bang-up-to-date with three modern works - David Hamilton’s O Vos Omnes, an FYC favourite, James Whitbourne’s Alleluia Jubilate and the jazzy inflections of The Lord is My Shepherd by Will Todd, perhaps best-known for his Mass in Blue.       

After a short interval, the mood changed again as the choir grabbed the audience by the ears with Lyn Williams’ Festive Alleluia, followed by two other FYC ‘classics’, Michael Neaum’s gentle arrangement of the traditional Scottish ballad, Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go and David Brunner’s infectious Yo le Canto.

Composer Janet Wheeler was in the audience to hear the choir’s sensitive performance of her And Then We Knew Peace, a special commission first performed by FYC at the Farnham Festival in March. In contrast to its comforting, reflective mood, this was followed by the angry, more aggressive tone of A Poison Tree, including body percussion: also written by her for FYC, this was being given its world première at the Lions’ concert. “FYC’s energy, rhythmic precision, wonderfully clear diction and professional presentation were awesome,” she commented. “I really enjoyed the performances of my two pieces, which the choir delivered with supreme musicality in the two very different styles they demand. Congratulations to Joanna and to all.”

The lighter, secular mood of the second half concluded appropriately with three popular songs, including Bob Dylan’s Make You feel My Love, more recently a hit for Adele, and ending with Paloma Faith’s Upside Down, in a really crowd-pleasing arrangement by Michael Higgins. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening however was Ivo Antognini’s Wah bah dah bah doo bee!, a fun piece in which we were encouraged ‘not to listen to the lyrics’ (no surprise) but ‘listen to the music’, which we most certainly did given the choir’s evident relish and infectious enthusiasm in performance.

Not only did the young singers’ voices blend perfectly under conductor Jo Tomlinson’s direction, but there are also outstanding soloists within the choir, as solo performances by Charlotte Gill, Annia Grey, Jessica Miller and Millie Brake throughout the concert showed to great effect.  

Jo was clearly delighted with the performance of her young singers, nearly one quarter of whom joined the choir at the start of term just six weeks ago. It was evident that the choir continues to show a rare ability to get under the skin of an extraordinarily wide range of repertoire and convey the essence of every piece - and their ability to communicate this to the audience just gets better and better.     

FYC Chairman Graham Noakes thanked Farnham Lions and Farnham Institute Charity for sponsoring the concert and outlined some of the plans for the FYC family of choirs over the next three years. In helping achieve this ambitious momentum, he was delighted to announce that David Whelton MBE, a Director of the Three Choirs Festival and until recently Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra, had agreed to become FYC’s Honorary President.

In praising the choir for an excellent evening’s entertainment, Farnham Mayor Mike Hodge echoed the audience’s gratitude for Farnham Lion’s unique contribution to town life and wished the organisation every success for the next 50 years!

Review by Graham Noakes

A Date with a Traction Engine

A big thank you goes to David Miller who took choir parents Jason and Sally Harris out for a scorching day out on his 1913 traction engine, "Cromwell".  Jason bid for the day out at the FYC fund raising gala dinner last year at Brasserie Blanc in Farnham.  Jason and Sally took their daughters Catherine and Eleanor to share the unique, rather hot and some what dirty experience. At the end of the ride, everyone enjoyed a well earned lunch at the pub in Micheldever!

Summer Gala Concert 2017

The concert held on 8th July at Farnham Maltings had the usual celebratory feel, bringing all the choirs together on the stage and summing up what has been achieved during the past season. It is always lovely to see singers from age 6-18 performing with joy, directed by their various conductors and all ably accompanied by pianist Matthew Rickard.

The concert opened with a set from the senior FYC choir, directed by Jo Tomlinson, who sang several sacred pieces from the sixteenth century up to the present day, including the dramatic piece To Agni with text taken from the Hindu Rig Veda. The final piece in this first set was a World Premiere of And then we knew Peace by Janet Wheeler, commissioned by FYC.

Next to the stage came the crowd-pleasing Trainers Choir who despite their young ages performed wonderfully, with clear diction, good intonation and smiling faces! Conductor Sarah Burston has them well trained!

After the interval we were treated to songs in English and in French from the Junior Girls Choir, conducted by Jo McNally, followed by songs performed jointly by the Girls and the Junior Boys Choir, directed by Patrick Barrett. Both these choirs had enjoyed the opportunity to perform together this year in a new work, Dies Irae, by Ian Assersohn at Dorking Halls. As a thank-you for their dedication, Ian composed a setting of the words Silver by Walter de la Mare, and this was given a World Premiere performance with the composer present in the audience at the Maltings.

Patrick Barrett then directed the Boys Choir with songs in Congolese and Hebrew, followed by Panis Angelicus, ably assisted by the senior boys from FYC.

Jo Tomlinson conducted a set of lighter pieces from FYC to close the concert, including the quirky and demanding piece Wah Bah Dah Doo Bee! by the Swiss jazz composer Ivo Antognini and a charmingly choreographed version of Paloma Faith’s Upside Down, arranged by Michael Higgins who was present in the audience.

All choirs rose together to perform the final piece Goin’ Up a-Yonder which has been a favourite in the FYC repertoire for some time and brought tears to the eyes of the leavers!

Laura Brown